Clarets warm up for cup-tie

Alex Taylor - scored the winner

After the fiasco of last week where the linesmen didn’t actually arrive for the match until half time, we were fortunate this week to have a full compliment of officials at the outset of the game. However, Burnley were left wishing that these men in black had got lost as well, as they frustrated the Clarets with a poor display.

Playing with a slightly weakened side due to the upcoming cup-tie with Oldham, Terry Pashley left Chris McCann, Nicky Platt and Cayne Hanley on the bench and chose not to have winger Marc Pugh in the sixteen. Darrell Avery and Adam Jones came into the middle of the park but couldn’t really exert themselves on the game.

The first half saw very few clear-cut openings with Kyle Lafferty off the pace and Alex Taylor having to feed on scraps and make his own openings. Taylor managed one shot but could only find the keeper from the edge of the area and in truth Scunthorpe had the best of the play. They were unfortunate on a couple of occasions as defensive lapses allowed them in, though their final balls let them down and Mark Crossley remained under worked in the goal.

The second half saw more of the same as time and again the Clarets were caught offside by the flag-happy linesman. At least two of the decisions were very poor and this forced the referee to trot over and have a chat with his assistant about the rules of the game.

Crossley had much more to do during this forty-five, though he was never really tested, as all of the goal attempts that Scunthorpe could muster were directly at him.

As the game wound down Avery ran on to a long ball but had his shot blocked in the area. Taylor was following up though and he arrived at the ball before the covering defender to finish from close range. It was a cruel blow for the well-organised Scunthorpe team and from their display today they deserved something from the game.

Taylor held the ball up well all game and thoroughly deserved his goal, taking his season tally to 16. Although he was part of a front two his partners, Lafferty in the first half and Hanley in the second, gave him very little support. Joe Booth in the middle was also in very good form, pressuring the Scunthorpe midfield and encouraging his team mates all game.

All in all it was far from pretty but gives us a welcome confidence boost ahead of Monday’s cup-tie.

Team: Mark Crossley, Rob Henry, Martin Reilly, Ryan Townsend, Neal Trotman (Jack Overson), Darrell Avery, Adam Jones (Chris McCann), Tom Ince, Joe Booth, Kyle Lafferty (Cayne Hanley), Alex Taylor. Subs not used: Nicky Platt, Michael Hale.

Youth Team Fixtures